How to use Video Effectively on your Website to Boost Sales

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Imagine landing on a website and instead of reading through endless blocks of text, you’re greeted with a short, engaging video that immediately answers your questions. Feels more personal, right? That’s the power of video on websites!

Video is no longer just a nice-to-have—it’s a game-changer for engagement, conversions, and brand trust. If you’re not using video on your website yet, you might be leaving money on the table.

In today’s episode, we’re diving into why video is rising in popularity, how to use it effectively on your website, and what mistakes to avoid so it actually helps your business grow. Let’s get started!

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Episode Transcript

Carrie Saunders (00:01):
Imagine landing on a website.
Instead of reading throughendless blocks of text, you're
greeted with short, engagingvideo that immediately answers
your questions, feels morepersonal, right, that's the
power of video on websites.
Video is no longer just anice-to-have.
It's a game-changer forengagement, conversions and
brand trust.
If you're not using video onyour website yet, you might be

(00:25):
leaving money on the table.
In today's episode, we'rediving into why video is rising
in popularity, how to use iteffectively on your website and
what mistakes to avoid so itactually helps your business
grow.
So let's get started.
Welcome to the eCommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host, k Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop

(00:46):
and a nine-month-old my maingoal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in theecommerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech into easily understandable
bits to help others besuccessful in their online
business.
Whether you're a seasonedecommerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of

(01:09):
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the show.
Today, we're talking about videoon our websites and how to use
it effectively and the mistakesto avoid.
So there's a rise in video onwebsites.
You probably already noticedthis.
So why is video becoming amust-have for websites?
So people process videos about60,000 times faster than text.

(01:33):
Think about it when we are inperson with somebody, we are
used to processing human speechand talking directly to a person
.
When we have video, that's kindof emulating it and simulating
it.
We process that much fasterthan reading text.
It builds trust faster, as wellthan static images and words
alone.

(01:53):
Google loves video.
Websites with video contentrank higher in search results
and attention spans, they say,are shrinking.
But we've really not had thatgreat of attention span anyway,
and especially patients onwebsites, and it's getting even
shorter, I feel like on websitesspecifically, and videos keep
visitors engaged for longer.

(02:15):
According to recent studies,websites that have video are 53%
more likely to show up on thefirst page of Google Kind of
shocking results.
It's something I didn't quiterealize until doing some
research on writing this podcastepisode Plus having a video on
your landing page can boostconversions by up to 80%.
Think about it.

(02:36):
We talk about trust a lot onthis podcast.
What builds trust other than ahuman connection, and video is
one of those ways to build ahuman connection.
So how do we actually use videothe right way on your website?
Because I know that I have somepet peeves on how video can be
used on a website, so let's lookat those.
So, first off, we can have ahomepage hero video, because

(03:01):
first impressions matter and ashort, high quality video at the
top of your homepage canquickly communicate who you are,
the problem you solve and whysomebody should care and should
keep on reading on your website.
We want to keep this videoabout 30 to 90 seconds max.
Definitely add subtitles, sincemany people watch videos

(03:24):
without sound.
Plus, it also helps it be ADAcompliant.
And then, when we have productsor services, it is a great idea
to have explainer videos aroundthose products or services.
Your visitors don't want tojust guess how your product or
service works.
They want to see it in action,so you can show the

(03:44):
transformation your servicesprovide.
You can demonstrate how yourproduct works in real life.
If it's something that's aphysical product.
You can also address commonpain points and how you solve
them if you're a serviceprovider.
And when we're doing thesevideos, we want to focus on
benefits, not just features.
Similarly, unlike the episodewe have for how to make product

(04:05):
and service descriptions thatsell, we are talking about
benefits and not just features,and those are podcast episodes
as well.
People buy solutions, notspecifications.
They want to know why and howit's going to solve their issue
and they want to be able toreach that determination quickly

(04:25):
, so we want to focus on thosebenefits.
You can also use videos forcustomer testimonials and case
studies, as we talk about onthis podcast.
A lot social proof helps yousell.
It helps build trust, and areal person on video sharing
their success story is far morepersuasive than a written review
.
Ask your best clients orcustomers to record a short

(04:48):
video about their experience.
Showcase before and aftertransformations when that's
applicable and keep it authentic.
Real emotions build trust.
Don't overproduce thesetestimonial videos.
The more natural the better,and the more natural the more
believable is why that's muchbetter.
So make sure they're notoverproduced and they're pretty.

(05:10):
You know close to exactly whatthat person has recorded.
Also, you can have educationaland blog embedded videos on your
website as another options.
They can enhance your blogcontent and keep your visitors
on your page for longer, whichsignals to Google that your
content is valuable.
We talk about this a lot in oursearch engine optimization

(05:30):
episodes how long a person is ona page and you can repurpose
your blog post into shorteducational videos.
That's one idea you can do.
You can add videos inside ofhow-to articles to visually
demonstrate your points and howyou're doing what you're doing,
and you can use YouTube or Vimeoto embed your videos to improve
the site speed.

(05:50):
That is a great way to help nothave the time to load for that
page to be a lot slower ifyou're using YouTube or Vimeo.
You can also have it in-houseand have it hosted on your own
web page, but make sure thatit's nice and quick and that you
can service that pretty fast.
And also always always on allthese videos.

(06:11):
Transcribe your videos thishelps with search engine
optimization and accessibilityand always make sure you have
captions on them.
And then, when it's appropriatefor your business, live and
behind the scenes videos aregreat.
People love behind the scenescontent, so share your progress,
your workspace, a day in thelife of your business.

(06:32):
Use live videos for productlaunches, q&as or special
announcements.
Let your audience see the realpeople behind the brand.
That again further builds thattrust.
Make sure you are doingauthenticity over perfection.
We don't want to be perfecthere.
We want to be a real, relatablehuman being.

(06:52):
You don't need Hollywood-levelproduction here.
That's likely going to be avery big turnoff, unless that's
what you are targeting.
Is you being able to producehigh, high-quality video as a
service?
That would be probably the mainexception to that.
If that's not what your serviceis, then don't do high quality

(07:13):
production video.
Make it more authentic, ofcourse, make it, you know, clean
and professional, but make itmore authentic than it is
completely high quality andunbelievable.
So there's some common mistakesto avoid with website videos.
We don't want them to be toolong or boring.
We want to get to the pointquickly.
Somewhere around 30 to 90seconds is ideal, unless it's a

(07:37):
really big, unless it's a longdemonstration video that is
actually necessary to show how aproduct works or show how you
fix something.
But most of the time 30 to 96seconds is what you want.
We also don't want to have poorquality.
While we don't want to have itbe Hollywood production, in most
cases poor quality isdefinitely a turnoff.

(08:00):
So we don't want to have blurryor shaky or bad audio.
People will click away fast,especially when it's bad audio.
They'll tolerate visualelements not being as good over
audio being pretty terrible.
So invest in a decentmicrophone Most of them are
pretty inexpensive anymore andmake sure your lighting is

(08:22):
really good.
Another mistake to avoid is tonot have subtitles or captions,
so make sure you have these.
85% of videos are watched onmute.
I know I am one of those peoplewho does not turn on the sound
on most of my videos, so makesure your messaging still gets
across with subtitles and don'tautoplay with sound.

(08:44):
Oh my goodness, please don'tautoplay with sound.
Don't scare your visitors Ifautoplaying.
If you have autoplaying turnedon which honestly I recommend
not doing keep it muted with aneasy play button.
I personally get reallyfrustrated with videos that just
autoplay, because maybe I'm notready to process it yet, so you

(09:05):
can think about it in that way,they may actually be reading
some of your text before theydecide to watch your video.
So not autoplaying is, I think,what you really should do.
But if you do have autoplay,make sure you don't have the
sound on automatically.
Also, we want to make sure we'reoptimizing for mobile.
If your video doesn't load wellon mobile, you're going to be

(09:26):
losing a huge audience, and thenI want you to also consider
this Consider whether you allowthem to play the video in a
faster mode.
For me personally, I don't havethe patience to watch a video
on slow mode.
I process words that peoplespeak very fast and it really

(09:46):
bores me, honestly, if I'm justgoing to be honest here and I
know there's a lot of otherbusiness owners I've talked to
too that want to watch videos ona faster mode so consider
having that option to let themwatch it on a faster mode, even
if it is only 30 to 90 secondvideo.
Seriously, consider that,because that might be something
that your audience is wanting.

(10:08):
So some key takeaways on how toget started with video on your
website.
We want to identify where videowould be the biggest impact on
your website.
Is it going to be your homepage?
Is it going to be a productpage or a service page?
Would it be testimonials foryou?
Don't feel like you have to doall of these at once if you
don't have any at all.
Pick the most impactful one fornow and start there, and then

(10:30):
start with that one simple video.
Your intro about video is agreat first step, so this could
be on your homepage.
It could be on your about page.
So a short intro about who youare and what your business is
about, and you can use yoursmartphone if you would like and
natural lighting.
That can be very effective.
You don't really need a fancysetup and you can upload videos

(10:54):
to YouTube or Vimeo to help withyour site speed, and you can
embed them in your site that way.
That also then gives youpresence on YouTube, especially
if you use YouTube, which is yetanother great search engine too
.
Keep it short, clear andengaging, always thinking about
the visitor's experience.
I like to think about talkingto a good friend or a good

(11:17):
client whenever I'm making video.
So think about it that way.
Think about talking to thatother person on the end of the
camera, like it's a real personthat's going to help you produce
your video.
So video isn't just a trend.
It is the future of onlinemarketing, as I'm sure you know
as a consumer as well.

(11:38):
So, whether you're sellingphysical products, digital
courses or services, strategicvideo can skyrocket your
engagement, build trust fasterand ultimately increase
conversions.
That's all we have for thisweek's episode of the E-Commerce
Made Easy podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode,please be sure to share it with

(11:58):
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podcast.
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(12:20):
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